“Sometimes we find that these kids will walk from Edison School [in Union City] to [St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken] just so that they don’t lose the credits for that day,” said Lou Wejnert, a teacher in the 8th grade Alternative Education Program at Edison School in Union City. “These were kids who wouldn’t come to school if it was a cloudy day.”
The eighth grade Alternative Education Program at Edison School, which is in its fourth year, is designed for students that are already past the age for grammar school, but have not yet advanced into high school.
“A lot of these students have not done well in a traditional classroom,” said Wejnert last week. “This program allows the students to use whatever their strengths are.”
The program, which also takes place in other Union City schools, allows the students to take part in a work study program which places students in a choice of: St. Mary Hospital on Third Street and Willow Avenue in Hoboken, Jersey City Medical Center on Montgomery Street and Baldwin Avenue in Jersey City, day care centers in Union City, or within the school in food services.
However, in order for the students to stay in the program and go onto their job sites, they have to do well academically, too.
“If a student begins to do poorly in school, they will get kicked out of the program,” said Wejnert The children also prepare for state testing in the afternoon. Their afternoon is filled with the traditional classroom subjects such as math, science, social studies and computer technology. Depending on how the students perform on the state tests, they can either enter ninth or tenth grade the following year.
“It doesn’t happen all that often,” said Wejnert, who added that two students from the program last year were able to skip ninth grade.
According to Yolanda Morales, who has taught the Alternative Education Program at Edison School for the past three years, at least two students each year have been able to enter the tenth grade from this program.
“[This program] gives the kids an opportunity to catch up with their grade level,” said teacher Lou Wejnert. “They are intelligent kids,” said Morales.
“These kids have been in some trouble,” said Wejnert. “They have outside problems and influences.” The students enrolled in the program are between the ages of 14 and 17.
Earning the grade
For the 25 students enrolled in this program, their school day starts at 9:15 a.m., when they wait for the bus that brings them to their work site. They work from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. After that, they return to school. Their day ends after their last lesson at 4 p.m.
Many of the students in the program have had trouble with absenteeism or tardiness in the past; however they have been able to attend school each day since entering the program.
“[The program] gives the students an incentive to come to work every day and do well on the state exams,” said Yolanda Morales, one of the teachers in the program.
Ten students are allowed at each hospital site, leaving the other students to work in day care centers or within the school.
“The majority of the students work directly with the patients,” said Morales whose class is located at Jersey City Medical Center. However, she added that other students work in the gift shop, in medical records and in other areas they are needed.
Each student works directly with one nurse or supervisor that the students are able to form a relationship with. These supervisors fill out a work evaluation form for their student in the third and fourth marking periods. “The nurses that work here are tougher than any teacher they will ever have,” said Wejnert.
The supervisors also work with the students and allow them to work on their own.
“They give us our work and let us do it,” said a student working in the medical records department of St. Mary’s Hospital. “They are not on top of us like teachers are.”
More than just work
In this program, the students are able to learn more than just their schoolwork while they are out on their job sites.
“It is great for the students to get some real life work experience,” said Director of Public Affairs at Jersey City Medical Center Lynn McFarlane. “Who knows? Maybe some of them will want to grow up and become doctors and nurses themselves.”
“I was thinking about becoming a nurse,” said a 14 year-old girl in the program. “I was able to ask a lot of questions.”
The students also learn responsibility and gain self esteem.
“I am learning more here than I could learn at school,” said a 14-year-old student working on the fifth floor of St. Mary’s Hospital.
Many of the students learn how to do many different jobs at the hospitals. They learn that if they do not come to work that day, someone else has to fill in for them.
“The students don’t just learn their own job,” said Wejnert. “On any given day, they will have to do someone else’s job.”
“Maybe kids don’t want to follow the rules at home,” said Volunteer Coordinator at St. Mary’s Hospital Dorothy DeMauro. “But here they get a sense of responsibility and direction.”
“The students get a chance to see lots of different jobs in a people servicing area,” said Wejnert.
Some students learn just by having direct contact with the patients. When some students were pulled away from their regular jobs to hang Halloween decorations for the pediatric floor, a few were able to help a child just by playing with him.
They made that little kid feel good,” said Wejnert. “That is what they got from that experience, not just that they hung up some Halloween decorations.”
Many of the students continue volunteering even after they graduate from the program, and a few have also been offered jobs because of their performance at the hospitals.
“You can see a difference in the children from when they come here in September and when they leave in June,” said DeMauro.
Growing in popularity
When the program began four years ago, Wejnert said that no one wanted to be in the program.
“Now we have a waiting list,” Wejnert said. “Now we have kids that want to be in the program that really don’t qualify.”
However, the students that apply for the program are recommended by their teachers and have to fill out a survey ranking different job descriptions such as child care, clerical, and others.
“If the teachers feel the child is going to fail next year and is already over age, or if the teacher sees that the student is at-risk, [they refer them to the program],” said Morales. “Once they have that done, we try to set them up with the appropriate hospital or day care.”